[Buddha-l] NYTimes.com: Let Us Pray for Wealth

[Dan Lusthaus]

Stan,

The details as to which Catholic orders did what starts to get complicated.
For some the Jesuits are angels, for others the demonic within Catholicism.
We needn't rehearse all that here.

Missionary activity in Japan -- by all orders -- was not as innocent you are
attempting to portray. For instance (to be brief), from Wikipedia under
Kirishitan (吉利支丹, 切支丹, キリシタン, Kirishitan?):

Missionaries were not reluctant to take military action if they considered
it an effective way to Christianize Japan.

They often associated military action against Japan with the conquest of
China. They thought that well-trained Japanese soldiers who had experienced
long civil wars would help their countries conquer China. For example,
Alessandro Valignano said to the Philippine Governor that it was impossible
to conquer Japan because the Japanese were very brave and always received
military training but that Japan would benefit them when they would conquer
China. Francisco Cabral also reported to the King of Spain that priests were
able to send to China two or three thousand Japanese Christian soldiers who
were brave and were expected to serve the king with little pay.

The Jesuits provided various kinds of support including military support to
Kirishitan daimyo when they were threatened by non-Kirishitan daimyo. Most
notable was their support of Omura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu, who fought
against the anti-Catholic Ryuzoji clan. In the 1580s, Valignano believed in
the effectiveness of military action and fortified Nagasaki and Mogi. In
1585, Gaspar Coelho asked the Spanish Philippines to send a fleet but the
plan was rejected due to the shortness of its military capability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirishitan

Since further details are easily gathered from standard history texts -- or
these days apparently online -- we needn't explore this further here on this
list, where its relevance to Buddhism per se is marginal.



Dan